News

A girl's own story

Her books have thrilled and comforted millions of young readers. Her dysfunctional characters, like Tracy Beaker, have helped take the stigma out of family breakdown and teen angst. But what makes Jacqueline Wilson empathise so strongly with childhood agony? Lesley White opens a chapter in the life of the children's laureate

The children's laureate Jacqueline Wilson tells a story about being followed into a ladies' loo in a shopping centre by a group of teenage fans. Giggling outside her cubicle, one of them doubts it's her, so another gets down on the floor and sticks her head under the door to check. There are many celebrities who write children's books; there are few children's authors who become real, worshipped, stalker-worthy celebrities.

As you walk in the shadow of a literary Beatlemania - fans shouting and stamping as she walks on stage, assistants scampering, black velvet swishing, fingers encased in seven huge silver rings of which Ozzy would be proud (they even have bats on them) - you realise that this is the rock'n'roll apotheosis of a Surrey pensioner. Wilson wears the chunky silver laureate's medal around her neck like a hip-hop medallion. Inspired by the New Zealand writer Margaret Mahy, she was considering